Legend of Gore Orphanage inspires new horror movie

BROWNHELM TOWNSHIP — One of Lorain County’s legendary haunted sites has inspired a movie that is due for release in 2015.
“Gore Orphanage” is based on the historical former orphanage that, according to legend, now is “haunted” by the ghosts of children who died there. The movie is in production in Scottdale, Pa., southeast of Pittsburgh, but the film-makers made a field trip this week to visit the site of the orphanage off Gore Orphanage Road in rural Lorain County.
“It is a period piece that is more about mood than overt gore,” said Executive Producer Cody Knotts. His wife, historical actress Emily Lapisardi, is directing the film.
The concept for the movie grew from another road trip when the couple were driving to Detroit to sign a band for an earlier movie. Knotts and Lapisardi said they drove past Gore Orphanage Road and were intrigued by the name.
“We didn’t know about the legend,” Lapisardi said. “I thought it was an incredible detail. I did a little research and found the story and we went from there.”
The movie is set in 1934 and will follow a young girl named Nellie, played by Emma Smith, 9, who is sent to the Gore Orphanage following the death of her family.
She makes friends of Esther, played by Nora Hoyle, 8, and Buddy, played by Brandon Mangin, 9, but the trio also must deal with Mrs. Pryor, the keeper of the orphanage.
Actress Maria Olsen, who has appeared in “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” plays Mrs. Pryor. Olsen described the character as very lonely and trying to figure out what is wrong with her life as she takes her frustration out on the children.
“It was such a great opportunity for me for a role of this size and this complexity,” said Olsen, who also made the trip to Ohio. “I for one just jumped on it and you have my full attention. It’s just an amazing, amazing opportunity.”
Middle-aged women are offered the fewest roles in movies, Olsen said, while Knotts noted the movie features a female director and lead characters, which is unusual for a horror film.
“Horror normally isn’t that,” he said. “Usually it’s some big male villain, it’s directed by men and there’s buckets of blood. This isn’t it.”
Instead the movie will be a character piece that develops the relationships with Nellie, Mrs. Pryor and Ernst, a German caretaker played by Bill Townsend. While the film is Townsend’s screen acting debut, he already is known as an Internet entrepreneur, violin maker and philanthropist, and is the son of Miss America 1963 Jackie Mayer Townsend of Sandusky.
The movie is being filmed almost entirely at the Scottdale home known as Graystone Manor outside Pittsburgh.
As for the site visit, Olsen said the scenery reminded her of the greenery and rain of summers in her native South Africa.
The woods of rural Lorain County fit the mood of the movie, said Lapisardi. For example, the group saw deer tracks in the mud near Gore Orphanage Road, and the character Ernst keeps a mounted deer trophy that he shot in back of the orphanage.
As for any ghostly presence, Lapisardi said the daytime visit was not too scary.
“I imagine it would be when it’s dark,” she said about the woods.
The official “Gore Orphaage” movie Facebook page is here: http://on.fb.me/1niU4yO
The Lorain Public Library System also has a page devoted to Professor Bill Ellis’ “Chapter 13: What Really Happened at Gore Orphanage.”